POP REVIEW

POP REVIEW; Love Is the Topic, Secular and Sacred

By JON PARELES

Published: May 29, 1999

When Al Green is onstage, there's no telling what he'll do next. He sings, he preaches, he dances, he tosses roses to the ladies; he jumps in and out of songs, cues sing-alongs and then tops them with oohs and ahs, walks out into the audience and keeps flashing his beaming smile. His concert at the Beacon Theater on Tuesday night, opening a two-night stand, was a jubilant combination of gospel testifying and a soul oldies show.

Mr. Green has been a minister at his own church in Memphis since 1976. But if he ever recognized any division between the seductive hits that made him a romantic hero of 1970's soul and the religious songs he has been writing since the late 70's, he has long since traversed it. He turned ''Amazing Grace'' and ''Nearer My God to Thee'' into rolling rhythm and blues; after singing ''How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?,'' he answered the question himself, ''Only with Jesus!'' Secular or sacred, he wants to spread love. And he still uses his old star presence; when he slipped one shoulder free of his white suit jacket, women squealed.

He sang nearly the same set as he did at the Beacon in 1995, with proselytizing songs at the beginning, a tribute to dead singers (Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye), and 70's hits -- ''Call Me,'' ''Love and Happiness'' -- at the end. It didn't matter.

Mr. Green lives for the improvisatory moment: for light syncopation that plays footsie with the steady-chugging Memphis soul beat, for the husky desperation of a lover's plea, for leaps into falsetto that sound both vulnerable and exultant, for the time when he steps away from the microphone to let his voice fill the theater unassisted.

He gets the audience to lean in, hanging on a suspenseful phrase; then he laughs it off and has the crowd sing the next line. He sang ''Let's Stay Together'' in a near-replica of his 1971 recording, then treated ''Take Me to the River'' as quick phrases to be tossed away. He even managed to be entertaining as he complained about the sound mix: ''I've got sensitive ears!'' he announced. Guided by his faith and his whims, and backed by a band that keeps up with them, Mr. Green can make most other singers seem like automatons.

The Blind Boys of Alabama opened the concert with a set that followed the traditional gospel arc, making its way from devotional songs to extended, ecstatic vamping designed to unleash the spirit. With band members joining in, the group showed off plush, fervent quartet-style harmonies, sung a cappella or over 60's soul grooves.

Then they started working the crowd with voices undiminished by decades of singing; the group, formed in 1937, still includes two original members, Clarence Fountain and George Scott.

Jimmy Carter, a member since the 40's, climbed down into the aisle, rasped out ''Do you feel it!'' and held notes aloft until the audience was whooping with excitement. He sang ''Amazing Grace,'' answered by harmonies and rim shots; Mr. Fountain took over with his own gutsy declamations and falsetto bursts. With the audience on its feet, the set reached peak after peak, until, as Mr. Carter promised, the crowd could almost ''feel your soul jumpin' out your body.''